Historical Mystery

De Balzac Honore

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pubOne.info present you this new edition. In grateful remembrance, from his guest at the Chateau de Sache.

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• Publié par: Pub One Info
• Date de parution: 06 novembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9782819933960
• Langue: English

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AN HISTORICAL MYSTERY
(The Gondreville Mystery)
By Honore De Balzac
Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley
DEDICATION
To Monsieur de Margone.
In grateful remembrance, from his guest at theChateau de Sache.
De Balzac.
AN HISTORICAL MYSTERY
PART I
CHAPTER I. JUDAS
The autumn of the year 1803 was one of the finest inthe early part of that period of the present century which we nowcall “Empire. ” Rain had refreshed the earth during the month ofOctober, so that the trees were still green and leafy in November.The French people were beginning to put faith in a secretunderstanding between the skies and Bonaparte, then declared Consulfor life, — a belief in which that man owes part of his prestige;strange to say, on the day the sun failed him, in 1812, his luckceased!
About four in the afternoon on the fifteenth ofNovember, 1803, the sun was casting what looked like scarlet dustupon the venerable tops of four rows of elms in a long baronialavenue, and sparkling on the sand and grassy places of an immense rond-point , such as we often see in the country where landis cheap enough to be sacrificed to ornament. The air was so pure,the atmosphere so tempered that a family was sitting out of doorsas if it were summer. A man dressed in a hunting-jacket of greendrilling with green buttons, and breeches of the same stuff, andwearing shoes with thin soles and gaiters to the knee, was cleaninga gun with the minute care a skilful huntsman gives to the work inhis leisure hours. This man had neither game nor game-bag, nor anyof the accoutrements which denote either departure for a hunt orthe return from it; and two women sitting near were looking at himas though beset by a terror they could ill-conceal. Any oneobserving the scene taking place in this leafy nook would haveshuddered, as the old mother-in-law and the wife of the man wespeak of were now shuddering. A huntsman does not take such minuteprecautions with his weapon to kill small game, neither does heuse, in the department of the Aube, a heavy rifled carbine.
“Shall you kill a roe-buck, Michu? ” said hishandsome young wife, trying to assume a laughing air.
Before replying, Michu looked at his dog, which hadbeen lying in the sun, its paws stretched out and its nose on itspaws, in the charming attitude of a trained hunter. The animal hadjust raised its head and was snuffing the air, first down theavenue nearly a mile long which stretched before them, and then upthe cross road where it entered the rond-point to theleft.
“No, ” answered Michu, “but a brute I do not wish tomiss, a lynx. ”
The dog, a magnificent spaniel, white with brownspots, growled.
“Hah! ” said Michu, talking to himself, “spies! thecountry swarms with them. ”
Madame Michu looked appealingly to heaven. Abeautiful fair woman with blue eyes, composed and thoughtful inexpression and made like an antique statue, she seemed to be a preyto some dark and bitter grief. The husband's appearance may explainto a certain extent the evident fear of the two women. The laws ofphysiognomy are precise, not only in their application tocharacter, but also in relation to the destinies of life. There issuch a thing as prophetic physiognomy. If it were possible (andsuch a vital statistic would be of value to society) to obtainexact likenesses of those who perish on the scaffold, the scienceof Lavatar and also that of Gall would prove unmistakably that theheads of all such persons, even those who are innocent, showprophetic signs. Yes, fate sets its mark on the faces of those whoare doomed to die a violent death of any kind. Now, this sign, thisseal, visible to the eye of an observer, was imprinted on theexpressive face of the man with the rifled carbine. Short andstout, abrupt and active in his motions as a monkey, though calm intemperament, Michu had a white face injected with blood, andfeatures set close together like those of a Tartar, — a likeness towhich his crinkled red hair conveyed a sinister expression. Hiseyes, clear and yellow as those of a tiger, showed depths behindthem in which the glance of whoever examined the man might loseitself and never find either warmth or motion. Fixed, luminous, andrigid, those eyes terrified whoever gazed into them. The singularcontrast between the immobility of the eyes and the activity of thebody increased the chilling impression conveyed by a first sight ofMichu. Action, always prompt in this man, was the outcome of asingle thought; just as the life of animals is, without reflection,the outcome of instinct. Since 1793 he had trimmed his red beard tothe shape of a fan. Even if he had not been (as he was during theTerror) president of a club of Jacobins, this peculiarity of hishead would in itself have made him terrible to behold. His Socraticface with its blunt nose was surmounted by a fine forehead, soprojecting, however, that it overhung the rest of the features. Theears, well detached from the head, had the sort of mobility whichwe find in those of wild animals, which are ever on the qui-vive.The mouth, half-open, as the custom usually is amongcountry-people, showed teeth that were strong and white as almonds,but irregular. Gleaming red whiskers framed this face, which waswhite and yet mottled in spots. The hair, cropped close in frontand allowed to grow long at the sides and on the back of the head,brought into relief, by its savage redness, all the strange andfateful peculiarities of this singular face. The neck which wasshort and thick, seemed to tempt the axe.
At this moment the sunbeams, falling in long linesathwart the group, lighted up the three heads at which the dog fromtime to time glanced up. The spot on which this scene took placewas magnificently fine. The rond-point is at the entrance ofthe park of Gondreville, one of the finest estates in France, andby far the finest in the departments of the Aube; it boasts of longavenues of elms, a castle built from designs by Mansart, a park offifteen hundred acres enclosed by a stone wall, nine large farms, aforest, mills, and meadows. This almost regal property belongedbefore the Revolution to the family of Simeuse. Ximeuse was afeudal estate in Lorraine; the name was pronounced Simeuse, and incourse of time it came to be written as pronounced.
The great fortune of the Simeuse family, adherentsof the House of Burgundy, dates from the time when the Guises werein conflict with the Valois. Richelieu first, and afterwards LouisXIV. remembered their devotion to the factious house of Lorraine,and rebuffed them. Then the Marquis de Simeuse, an old Burgundian,old Guiser, old leaguer, old frondeur (he inherited the fourgreat rancors of the nobility against royalty), came to live atCinq-Cygne. The former courtier, rejected at the Louvre, marriedthe widow of the Comte de Cinq-Cygne, younger branch of the famousfamily of Chargeboeuf, one of the most illustrious names inChampagne, and now as celebrated and opulent as the elder. Themarquis, among the richest men of his day, instead of wasting hissubstance at court, built the chateau of Gondreville, enlarged theestate by the purchase of others, and united the several domains,solely for the purposes of a hunting-ground. He also built theSimeuse mansion at Troyes, not far from that of the Cinq-Cygnes.These two old houses and the bishop's palace were long the onlystone mansions at Troyes. The marquis sold Simeuse to the Duc deLorraine. His son wasted the father's savings and some part of hisgreat fortune under the reign of Louis XV. , but he subsequentlyentered the navy, became a vice-admiral, and redeemed the folliesof his youth by brilliant services. The Marquis de Simeuse, son ofthis naval worthy, perished with his wife on the scaffold atTroyes, leaving twin sons, who emigrated and were, at the time ourhistory opens, still in foreign parts following the fortunes of thehouse of Conde.
The rond-point was the scene of the meet inthe time of the “Grand Marquis”— a name given in the family to theSimeuse who built Gondreville. Since 1789 Michu lived in thehunting lodge at the entrance to the park, built in the reign ofLouis XIV. , and called the pavilion of Cinq-Cygne. The village ofCinq-Cygne is at the end of the forest of Nodesme (a corruption ofNotre-Dame) which was reached through the fine avenue of four rowsof elms where Michu's dog was now suspecting spies. After the deathof the Grand Marquis this pavilion fell into disuse. Thevice-admiral preferred the court and the sea to Champagne, and hisson gave the dilapidated building to Michu for a dwelling.
This noble structure is of brick, with vermiculatedstone-work at the angles and on the casings of the doors andwindows. On either side is a gateway of finely wrought iron, eatenwith rust and connected by a railing, beyond which is a wide anddeep ha-ha, full of vigorous trees, its parapets bristling withiron arabesques, the innumerable sharp points of which are awarning to evil-doers.
The park walls begin on each side of thecircumference of the rond-point ; on the one hand the finesemi-circle is defined by slopes planted with elms; on the other,within the park, a corresponding half-circle is formed by groups ofrare trees. The pavilion, therefore, stands at the centre of thisround open space, which extends before it and behind it in theshape of two horseshoes. Michu had turned the rooms on the lowerfloor into a stable, a kitchen, and a wood-shed. The only traceremaining of their ancient splendor was an antechamber paved withmarble in squares of black and white, which was entered on the parkside through a door with small leaded panes, such as might still beseen at Versailles before Louis-Philippe turned that Chateau intoan asylum for the glories of France. The pavilion is divided insideby an old staircase of worm-eaten wood, full of character, whichleads to the first story. Above that is an immense garret. Thisvenerable edifice is covered by one of those vast roofs with foursides, a ridgepole decorated with leaden